When I still worked on a PC, Firefox was my main browser. It was stable, light, had lots of plug-ins and supported the latest technologies. Now that I’m on a Mac, I almost never use it (except for browser testing).
Posted on 14/03/2008 under Reviews, 19 comments
Firefox has always been a fighter for support of web standards. They ported their application to Windows, Linux and Mac. That’s a good thing. This way, more people have access to a browser which renders its content the way it should be. The downside to this is that it doesn’t feel like a native application on any of those operating systems… Especially Mac-users like to give Firefox a nice ass-whoop, and I’m about to do the same.
The Good
Overall look (not feel)
Firefox 2 really felt like it didn’t belong on Mac. The entire interface looked like a quickly ported Java kind of app. Firefox 3 has an entirely new interface, with new buttons and graphics that tend more to the Mac-way of doing it.
Security
Another great thing about FF3, is the indication of certifications. As I already told on Flickr:
When a site has a certain certificate, FF3 will show it to you in a nice and fancy way. No more checking if it’s paypal or paypa1 in the url!
I really think Safari should implement this feature. Now, the only visual indication you get is a small lock in the top-right corner.
The Bad
Attention to detail
There are a couple of things wrong in this picture:
- The favicon isn’t properly aligned (vertically).
- People who design favicons, are used to having a white (or light greyish) background available to support their design.
- The icons look like they were ripped from Gmail.
- RSS-icons are supposed to be orange. Face it.
“Star Trek”
Looks like someone went a little ballistic with the design of the “Previous” and “Next” buttons. I mean, there’s a lot of noise here, for just 2 buttons. Maybe if I click it, the USS Enterprise will beam me up!! Scotty ahoi!
Menu style
Something that surprised me, was that FF3 isn’t using the menu-style default in OS X 10.5 (you know, slightly transparent and rounded corners).
It’s possible that they needed a more “custom” menu, but that’s no excuse for not having attention to detail…
The Ugly
Recently visited sites
First of all: Why do they still have this? Safari decided to go without this, and I haven’t missed it once.
Besides that, what’s up with the “Google made green links look cool”-style, and, more important, why wasting 2 lines per address? It looks bulky, takes in too much space, and has no added value.
And now we’re at it: Check the blue highlight around the address input. I’m using the anthracite colorscheme in OS X, not the blue one. Again, it’s just a detail, but it annoys me.
Performance
FF2 & FF3 are dog slow on Mac. It takes 15 seconds to launch it on a machine that’s not even a month old.
Conclusion
FF3 is still in beta at the moment, so I hope the final release will solve/change a lot of the items discussed here. Until then, I’ll just stick to Safari (which suffers from amnesia).
Comments on this post (Write new)
Matthew Smith said 131 days ago:
I second all your conclusions. I still use Safari on the whole, while I miss the plugin ability of FF, I still feel like the most integrated experience with OSX is with Safari and Apple apps.
Firebug is always on with FF though, so its a dev app for me entirely.
Nice write up.
Rik Catlow said 131 days ago:
I thought the interface was great except for the details you pointed out. The forward and back button config is way to complicated. Needs to be simplified. Don’t really see the point in making the back button much larger. I know people use the the back button more often but it just doesn’t flow right. I also don’t like the favicon in the gray thingy. The should keep the whole think in the while and make the whole location bar have a green 2px border.
my 2¢
Rik
Sam Brown said 131 days ago:
Good write-up Tim. Which version of the beta is this? 3.0b4?
I really love the security feature, think that looks great. Agreed about the ugly back/forward buttons and I definitely think the favicons should move over into the white where they rightfully belong.
Sadly I still prefer Safari.
Tim Van Damme said 131 days ago:
Thanks for the replies everybody. Good to see I’m not the only one who thinks about it this way :-)
@Sam: Yup, 3.0b4 it is. Before this release, the previous/next-thingie wasn’t so Star Trek like.
Elliot Jay Stocks said 131 days ago:
Nice review of the aesthetics, Tim. I haven’t downloaded FF3 just yet so it’s nice to see some interface details first. I’m not a huge fan of the new look and I agree with the negative points you highlighted. Above all, it reminds me of the ‘overdesigned’ way Flock went.
Simon Clayson said 131 days ago:
This is the first time I’ve seen this so thanks for the overview. I was think about giving it a go, but it seems there is no point yet. Can’t do ugly.
Geof Harries said 131 days ago:
If you change the main menu icons to “small” within preferences, they look much, much better.
Andy Croll said 131 days ago:
If it wasn’t for firebug, I’d delete the ugly, unresponsive thing.
However… it is much better than version 2. Although they still clearly want to ‘individualise’ Firefox from the rest of the Mac OS X look.
The other thing that bothers me is the rendering of CSS3 rounded corners, the difference between FF (poor) and Safari (lush) is huge.
Levi Figueira said 131 days ago:
Interestingly enough, I’m on 3.0b4 and I don’t have the “trekie” previous/next buttons… Don’t know if that happened because I upgraded from b3…
Anyway, I think one of the biggest features on FF3 is the new location bar with the search feature, that helps auto-completing not only if you start with the beggining of the URL, but if you type any part of the URL or title of the page! Man, this feature alone keeps me from going back to any other browser… and I love Safari/WebKit… (except the lack of toolbars like del.icio.us and WebDeveloper, etc…)
Good, clear review! Good job! :)
Reinier Meenhorst said 131 days ago:
Great post. I agree with Elliot Jay Stocks, this Firefox is leaning too much towards Flock. Luckily FF supports themes, I guess I will have to install the GrApple theme again. Safari rocks, but I have become attached to the Remember the Milk extension, Firebug and PicLens. And I’ll just keep on dreaming of Camino with Firefox Extension support.
kevadamson said 131 days ago:
Hmmm, yeah. See your point on some of that I guess.
Not sure why you’d want everything to look like the apple style in everything though. I like custard but I don’t want it with every meal!
I can also understand the choice behind the big back button. Probably the most used button on a web browser. How many times do you hit the forward button? To me that shows good awareness of ‘user interface hierarchy’
I don’t mind the FF GUI. My main wish for FF3 is that it’s faster and doesn’t crash as much as FF2 currently does …
Tim Van Damme said 131 days ago:
@Geof: Not only does it solve the previous/next-buttons look, it also fixes the alignment problem of the favicon!
@Levi: Ever tried Inquisitor for Safari?
@Reinier: PicLens works also in Safari :-) Great plugin btw!
Inferis said 131 days ago:
My god, it’s just a browser. None of the “problems” you mention are bothering your browsing expierence in any major way. I doubt surfing would go much easier when the blue highlight would match your user preferences.
In other words: I think most of the problems you mention are highly superficial.
Mac fanbois are such crybabies. ;)
Tim Van Damme said 131 days ago:
@Inferis: And that’s the difference between developers and designers :-) I really like all my apps to have a nice interface. Do they have to look the same? No. But they do have to look like they were build for Mac.
Geof Harries said 131 days ago:
While I agree with your comments about the presentation of the recently visited sites feature – I really wish the font size was smaller, spacing tighter and the line height shorter – I do find it beneficial when looking for old urls.
Cameron Hunt said 131 days ago:
I agree.
It’s a good decision to make Firefox more Mac-like, but this theme is very misguided. Especially the bevel orgy around the back button. It’s one of those “because I can” type of designs where they do too much and screw up usability.
I also really hate the button-style favicon and search favicons attached to the address bar and search field. They look awful.
Good catch with the un-rounded menus.
It seems like they’re not overlooking the details, they’re just screwing up the details.
Matt Brett said 131 days ago:
Wow, did they ever screw up those buttons. I tried 3b3 just a couple weeks back and it looked great! It had the new Mac-esque UI and looked pretty close to Safari. This is just horrendous.
The good news, is that Firefox supports themes – so you know someone’s going to “fix” the buttons and release a tidied up theme.
It is surprising to see them change the feed icon to blue as well.
Andrew Travers said 110 days ago:
I agree with so much of this – your points about the lack of attention to the crucial fine detail are absolutely on the mark.
It definitely doesn’t have the feel or polish of a finished product just yet.
That said, version 3 has made me reconsider using Firefox, having left version 2 behind long ago for Camino (and occasionally Safari) – it’s still a significant step forward
It’s still sluggish to load in comparison to those two and I’ve found myself using GrApple theme as a more Mac-native alternative.
Colin Barratt at iamthewalr.us had a good and simple tip for dealing with the out-sized buttons that might help for some.